Spartan Success Suggests Plenty of Possibilities as Karg Seeks Finals Redemption
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 18, 2025
Brody Karg doesn’t know how fast he can run anymore, and he’s OK with that.
In fact, it excites him.
After the pull of competition helped him to a personal best time of 15 minutes, 47.2 seconds on a tough Forest Akers East cross country course at the Spartan Invitational this past Friday, the Harbor Beach senior is adjusting his goals.
“After MSU, it seems like the sky is the limit,” Karg said. “I figured, before the season, that I’d be able to run like 15:35 by the end, but honestly, I feel like that State time, that might have been worth 15:30 if it was on a fast course in good conditions. I beat some guys that have already run 15:30 this year. I don’t know what I’m capable of. I’m trying to keep that open mind, like you really don’t know how good you are until you go out and test yourself. I think that mid 15:20s could be possible. But we’ll see.”
Karg placed sixth at MSU in the Spartan Elite division. The five runners who finished ahead of him – Brandon Cloud of Northville, Luke Hammond of Grand Haven, Jack MacGregor of Howell, Ian Morgan of Okemos and Aiden Pengelly of Canton – all earned all-state honors at the 2024 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, with four of them finishing among the top 10. And of those five, only Cloud (15:34.3) and Hammond (15:38.7) were more than three seconds ahead of Karg.
It was an improvement of 26 places and nearly 50 seconds from his Spartan Invitational performance a year ago. And that was during a year when Karg won eight of his 10 regular-season races, his Division 4 Regional and placed 16th at the MHSAA Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
“I mean, I don’t get a lot of chances like that to really show what I’ve got,” he said. “So those ones always feel a little bigger. Those bigger races always feel a little bigger for me than maybe they would for someone who (regularly sees tougher competition).
“The competition helped push me there, but I’ve also made a big jump from last year to this fitness-wise. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in training that I haven’t been able to do in previous builds, so I knew that I was ready to make a big jump. It was just a matter of when.”
The Spartan Invitational was one of the few chances Karg has had to prove himself on one of the state’s biggest stages since that 16th-place finish a year ago, joining, most notably, the Division 4 Track & Field Finals, where he placed third in the 3,200 meters.
Third is about where he thought he could have finished at last year’s cross country Finals, too, but a near total-body shutdown as he approached the finish line thwarted that.
With about 400 meters remaining in the race, Karg said he went to make his finishing kick, but his legs wouldn’t let him.
“I was right next to another kid, ready to make my move, and I felt strong enough to make that move, so I was like, ‘OK, we’re moving,’” he said. “I went to make the move, and all of the sudden, my legs had nothing. He starts pulling away from me. I get passed by one guy, by two guys, and I’m wobbling. I can’t stay up. I went down, and then I just got back up and scrambled to the line. It took me like a half hour to get back to the tent. I did puke a couple times. It was horrible.”
To this day, Karg doesn’t know what happened. It could have been a bit of sickness or dehydration, but he said he thought he had hydrated well, and that he felt good running right up until he didn’t.
He’s taken extra precautions in how he prepares now, making sure his eating and sleeping habits are in line, along with his electrolyte intake.
“I was obviously disappointed,” he said. “I felt like I really could have gotten third. But things happen. It gave me some motivation, I guess. I came back and had a successful track season. I’m doing well this cross country season. I’m just hoping to go back to MIS and prove what I can really do.”
Meets like the one at MSU are part of Karg’s schedule to help prepare him for this year’s Finals. He’ll also run at the Portage Invitational and the DXC and Vintage 03 meet at Shepherd, which are sure to feature some of the top competitors in Division 4. Those will also give him a chance to run down the school record of 15:41, which was set in 2015 by Luke Anderson.
Karg will be heading to Portage and Shepherd on his own, but he went to MSU with his teammates. Having them compete on that stage, and getting a chance to watch Karg excel, was important for Harbor Beach coach Debbie Anderson.
“People said, ‘It’s a big venue for you, Deb. Are you sure you want to take the kids?’” Anderson said. “Absolutely I do. Where else are they going to see this during high school? Let’s take them to these big places where they can see kids do amazing things, and on Friday, it was one of our very own kids that did an amazing thing. I want them to see that. One of us shined on Friday, and it was really cool to see one of us in the elite race. We’re so proud of him.”
Anderson is on the same page as Karg in thinking the sky is the limit for him moving forward. He’s dialed in, she said, and even with high-level runners like reigning champion Mark Butkiewicz of Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep in the field, she’s not putting anything past Karg.
“Can he (win the Division 4 Final)? Yes,” Anderson said. “I always say yes. My mantra is, there are no places taken. Don’t act like this guy has first place. No, it depends on how you run. You can change all the places if you want.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Harbor Beach’s Brody Karg (1219) paces with Three Oaks River Valley’s Landon Rogers during last season’s Division 4 Final at MIS. (Middle) Karg charges toward the finish line. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
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Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.